Woman called 'brains' behind murders

But defence lawyer says ex-wife of one of the victims only found out about deaths after the fact

- JASON MILLER

Melissa Merritt, above, is on trial for allegedly murdering her ex-husband, Caleb Harrison, top left, in 2013, and his mother, Bridget Harrison in 2010.

 

Melissa Merritt was “calling the shots” in the murders of her exhusband and mother-in-law, a prosecutor said in his closing remarks in a trial happening more than a decade after Bridget and later Caleb Harrison were both found dead in the same Mississauga home.

Merritt’s already convicted common-law spouse, Christopher Fattore, did not act on his own and “must’ve had the help and encouragement of Melissa Merritt,” Crown attorney Eric Taylor said in his closing remarks to the jury this week.

In four weeks of evidence at the Brampton trial, the jury heard evidence from police wiretaps and video recordings that Taylor said show Merritt was “clearly the brains” in a plot motivated by a bitter and prolonged custody battle.

Those intercepted conversations show that Fattore told Merritt about the killings, and that he was willing to take the rap for them. The trial has also revealed how Merritt lied about Fattore’s whereabouts to assist him with his alibi following Caleb’s death. And all those factors combined show she was not just an accessory after the fact, Taylor said.

Bridget Harrison, 63, a former educator and school board superintendent, was found dead at the foot of the stairs of her Mississauga home on April 21, 2010. Her 40year-old son Caleb was found dead inside the house three years later on Aug. 23, 2013; it was only after his murder that his ex-wife and Fattore were considered suspects and Peel police investigators realized both had been strangled.